Saturday, April 28, 2012

April 28 - Does God Play?

I’m wrestling with this topic as I write it.It’s not that I struggle with my belief or
even with the concept, but rather with how to adequately do it justice.I’m wrestling with how to talk about God and
play without making it trite.So here
goes…

So for
a little background, I believe we have an amazingly awesome God who created the
Heavens and the Earth.Once they were
created he sought to fill them with wonderful things including all sorts of
plants, animals, natural wonders, and of course people.He made people to be able to fellowship with
him. He loved them. To truly love you have to have a
choice, so God created people with the capacity to choose. As we know Adam and Eve chose the forbidden
fruit and therefore chose to follow their desires instead of the life God had
laid out for them. This is when things
got off kilter and a curse was put on the earth.If you read Genesis 1-3 it lays out the whole
story.It describes the depth of the
beauty that God created and describes the fall.

When I
look around me today, especially at the natural world, I see great beauty and
an amazing capacity to enjoy it all.Yes, things are still messed up. While Jesus came to give people an
opportunity to restore our relationship with God, the world itself will not be
perfected until the creation of a new Heaven and a new Earth (Isaiah
66:22).But as I was saying the natural
world so beautiful.I enjoy
it immensely.The beauty in each item is
exquisite when I stop to look closely.I love going on walks with the kids or playing in the yard and
discovering something new and wonderful.When I look closely at something as commonplace as a dandelion I see
something gorgeous. Then when I consider the beautiful places to explore, open
spaces to run, trees to climb, streams to follow, and lakes to swim, I am blown
away.

All of this
points to a God that likes play.Why
else would he create us with our capacity to move, dance, swim, skip, and run?Why would he create such places to explore if
we were not meant to explore them?Why
do we have a desire to explore them? Then I get to thinking, is play an act of
worship?While I’m not an expert, I kind
of think it is.If we’re out enjoying
the creation in a way that honors the creation and choosing to recognize the
Creator, then I feel like play, especially in the natural environment, can be
worshipful.

I also
watch my children as they dance especially at church.It’s beautiful.They dance in response to their desire to
interact with God.It’s their
offering.While they have no formal
dance experience, there is a grace and elegance to their dancing that is often
not present when they dance at home.It’s
hard to describe, but their bodies at play/dance are worshipping God.

So this
is what I’m thinking.God loves us.He created us with a need for play.Does this mean that he has a desire to play
with us?When I feel like God is
speaking to me I feel a deep inner joy similar to that which of a child who is
totally engrossed in play.Is God
waiting for us to acknowledge him in all areas of our life, including our
play?Can we play with God?

Don't you just want to kayak down this river and stop to climb that tree?